Beacon Hill-Massive Development in Waller County (Houston, Utopia: houses, neighborhood, schools)

[Guineas]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

I am for land restrictions, it is sad to see sprawl happening. I hope NW Harris and Waller are not paved over...

In Seattle and its suburbs there is a hard urban growth boundary so that no further sprawl can take place into the Cascade mountains.

Maybe Houston can try something like that (wait, who am I kidding....)


Seattle and suburbs urban growth boundary

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Guineas

In Seattle and its suburbs there is a hard urban growth boundary so that no further sprawl can take place into the Cascade mountains.

That was one of the "Every major city that tries it ends up either regretting it, or paying the price" places I was referring to. Seattle has some of the least affordable housing in the US. Texas has some of the most affordable.

Average home price Texas: $218,000

Average home price Seattle: $778,500

[Guineas]

Originally Posted by astrohip

That was one of the "Every major city that tries it ends up either regretting it, or paying the price" places I was referring to. Seattle has some of the least affordable housing in the US. Texas has some of the most affordable.

Average home price Texas: $218,000

Average home price Seattle: $778,500

Comparing Seattle home prices with all of Texas is mighty disingenuous of you. Why don’t you also compare household income in Seattle vs all of Texas as well as the difference in property taxes? Seattle has no state income tax and also property taxes of 1%, which is well below the property taxes of DFW and Houston. Do the math of property taxes over 30 years of a mortgage and the difference in incomes, then the math looks a lot less favorable for Texas.

At some point you have to ask yourself if you owe the posterity anything. Or should every inch of land be turned into big box stores and subdivision tract housing in a couple of generations?

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Guineas

At some point you have to ask yourself if you owe the posterity anything. Or should every inch of land be turned into big box stores and subdivision tract housing in a couple of generations?

Every inch? Nah, just a few hundred acres out of millions and millions. Really, have you looked at Waller County? It's almost all rural farm & ranch land. Creating a subdivision out of 300 acres isn't really going to make a diff.

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by astrohip

Perhaps to you this is an eyesore. But no-growth policies really don't work. Every major city that tries it ends up either regretting it, or paying the price (see Portland for a great example). And seriously, what do you want to see happen to this land? It's just empty pasture land next to a freeway.

One man's sprawl is another man's home.

Disagree. When you cram sprawl into areas without infrastructure to support it, that is hardly cost effective.
There is a time and place for development to be concentrated.

[WRM20]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

Disagree. When you cram sprawl into areas without infrastructure to support it, that is hardly cost effective.
There is a time and place for development to be concentrated.

What do you say to the people who don't want to live in concentrated development, but want a single family home with a yard, a large garage, and all the other amenities that go with MPC's? I'm lucky, and live on a 1/4 acre lot inside the Loop, but that's unattainable for most folks now. We certainly couldn't afford to buy our property now, and concentrated development makes that worse.

[Hudlander]

Originally Posted by WRM20

What do you say to the people who don't want to live in concentrated development, but want a single family home with a yard, a large garage, and all the other amenities that go with MPC's? I'm lucky, and live on a 1/4 acre lot inside the Loop, but that's unattainable for most folks now. We certainly couldn't afford to buy our property now, and concentrated development makes that worse.

Sounds like a luxurious want vs need that isn't worth the societal and global damage of sprawl.
Only American 'exceptionalism' would have such an expectation that all are entitled.

[astrohip]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

Sounds like a luxurious want vs need that isn't worth the societal and global damage of sprawl.
Only American 'exceptionalism' would have such an expectation that all are entitled.

Again, all this debate is based on YOUR definition of the terms. You think it's sprawl, you think it's American exceptionalism.

I'm far more liberal than my replies in this thread would indicate (IOW, I'm not a right-wing wacko), but I do believe in property rights. I'm not a NIMBY either. It's clear you are.

[timtemtym]

One of the big draws to Texas is the affordable (by more expensive states' measure) master planned communities. You just don't find large scale developments like that in California (a major contributor of newly arriving Texans) unless they are over a million for a starter home or far from well-paying employers.

One of the only developments in SoCal that even comes close in scale/affordability is Ontario Ranch (located near dairy farms and a state prison). It's 15 minutes south of the commuter rail station, then 58 minutes to downtown LA and then a subway ride to jobs. It could be 1.5 - 2 hours commuting each way. Those commuter trains are packed most days (they are quite nice), because people will trade their time for living in the kind of home they want (rather than a small condo in the city).

Twenty to Thirty years ago, 290 and Hwy. 6 seemed like it was too far out. When Fairfield was being built, it was the edge of the world. Now Fairfield is inside Houston's 3rd loop.

Eventually (30 years?) Beacon Hill will be just another stop on Houston's commuter rail line to Brenham.

[fnh]

Chiming in as someone who lives in both Houston (inner beltway) and Seattle (inner city). While our Seattle home is smaller and cost more than our Houston home, on balance it's more of a wash than one might think. Insurance, utilities and property taxes in Houston are all far, far higher, while the public services and amenities in Texas are dreadful. In Seattle we discovered we just don't need the sprawling suburban home and yard at all because we can walk out the front door and stroll to several parks/schools/libraries/stores/cafes/post office, even forests and beaches, or easily hop onto good public transit that takes us almost anywhere that's too far to walk. Our neighborhood/city is a true extension of our home.

In Houston people think their home needs to be their everything because in Houston, there's little to nothing offered outside of them. It doesn't have to be that way, but it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when people consistently choose against the public good, not realizing that they too are part of the public.